In 2015 Your Humane Society of Ray County found homes for 168 cats and 81 dogs!

Thanks go as well to PetSmart of Liberty, who host our adoption services every month!

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You can easily donate via PayPal simply by clicking on the Donate button above. Safe, secure, and simple. The dogs and cats thank you!

Follow the Money

Where does the Humane Society of Ray County get its money, and where does it go?

We get money from donations and from adoption fees.

That's it, pet lovers. We get our money from you.We have no other source of income. We do not receive any funding from any government entity. We do not, at this time, have any foundation grants or other sources of income. We do have our building rent-free, courtesy of the Ray County Government, but we are responsible for all operating expenses and maintenance. And this building, the former Ray County Jail, is essentially a large box made of steel and brick. It was not designed with energy or operational efficiency in mind.

We're still mighty grateful to have it, even though that does mean that our charges mostly live in jail cells. It's not ideal, but it beats starving to death in a highway culvert. Or being shot by an annoyed landowner.

Our charges, both dogs and cats, get a full veterinary workup as soon as possible after they come to us. They receive a checkup, all necessary shots, and are spayed or neutered. If they are ill they get treated for their illness. On average the adoption fees just about cover the cost of the veterinary services (except in the case of sick animals). So a pet who comes to us, gets the necessary services, and is adopted out almost immediately is not too far from being a break-even pet from our perspective.

Of course, that doesn't include his share of the heat, lights, air conditioning, food, water, laundry expenses... You'd be amazed how much money it takes to operate an animal shelter.

The longer we keep them the more they cost us. Every day they're here they eat and drink.

Obviously we have to heat the building at least to a temperature that keeps the animals reasonably comfortable, and keeps the water pipes from freezing up. In the summer we provide air conditioning, again so the animals don't have to be miserable. This brick-and-concrete jail building is anything but energy efficient.

We provide fresh water for our charges daily.

We feed our charges Hill's Science Diet pet food. Life in a shelter is stressful for animals. The best food helps prevent stress ailments. High quality pet food isn't cheap.

We provide Fresh Step Scoopable Kitty Litter for our cat charges. Once again, in this environment, cheap stuff doesn't save any money. We want you to adopt a healthy, sound pet; to make that happen we have to care for them in the best ways available to us.

So that's it - heat, light, air conditioning, water, food, laundry soap, cat litter, vet bills... building repairs that we are unable to perform ourselves... All told it consumes a lot of money. A lot of money.

What about the help? What do we pay them?

Zip. Nada. Aside from the vet, everybody here is a volunteer. Gasoline? We buy it. Time? We donate it. This web site? We donate the hosting expenses and webmaster time. Routine building maintenance, cleaning, shoveling pet by-product? Volunteers donate all of that time and effort.

And that's why we ask for your help. If it weren't for pet lovers' donations we would have to close this operation down and walk away.